BRINLEY, BICKLEY, EARNLY (ERNLE), MINIFIE genealogy was The Brinley clan, New England cousins of the Barons Foley

[Richard Carruthers a.k.a. Carruthers-Zurowski]

I am picking up the thread of the BRINLEY genealogy about which John Brandon posted to the list on 13 March 2003, though on a different tack (to mix my metaphors).

I am interested in "my daughter in law Elizabeth EARNLY, widow" named in the will of Laurence BRINLEY, citizen and haberdasher, of London, made 10 Aug. 1662 and proved 11 Dec. 1662. See NEHGR, 37:382-83 or Waters' Genealogical Gleanings (1901)
http://www.archive.org/stream/genealogicalglea01wate/genealogicalglea01wate_djvu.txt

I have undertaken to trace every EARNLY, EARNLEY, ERNLE, ERNLEY, ERNELEY, EARNLEYE, ERNELYE, EARNELYE (you get the idea, I expect!) reference I find to see whether I can compile a fuller and more correct pedigree than what exists in print for this ancient gentry family which derives its name from the manor of Earnley, Sussex, where it held land from ca 1166 (via a grant to Lucas de Ernle from his de Lancinges nephew, William, later confirmed by his great-niece, Bertha, Wm's daughter).

I have had a good deal of success in tracing the lineage back to ca 1428 , but this reference to "Elizabeth EARNLY, widow" is one of my puzzles.

I am aware that daughter-in-law can mean stepdaughter at this period. I also see that EARNLY was unlikely to be Elizabeth maiden name, but instead the name of a former husband whose widow she was by 10 Aug. 1662.

Examining the BRINLEY pedigree and epitaph of testator Laurence's elder brother Thomas BRINLEY (1591-1661), royal auditor (and ancestor of the American and Canadian (Loyalist) BRINLEY family, ancestors of FDR and of Canada's current Liberal leader, Michael IGNATIEFF), I see that, though the family was derived from Staffordshire antecedents, the generation in question was connected with Exeter in Devon. This is also borne out in Laurence's will when he mentions his sister, "Susan GREGORY, of Exon (i.e. Exeter), widow."

Now in the ERNLE pedigree Devon is not often in the picture, but there was William ERNLE, merchant of Bideford, Devon, whose PCC will was proved in 1663. In the indented narrative pedigree I am compiling he currently appears as follows, viz.:

7i. William ERNLE, gent., of “Stone”, Bideford, Devon;
bt. 29 July

1583, Westbury, Wilts., d. -- March 1662/63, and bur.
23 Mar. 1662/63, Bideford, Devon;
PCC will extract viz.: “WILLIAM ERNELEY,
of Bideford,

Devon,
gent. Will dated July 6, 1662, proved June 5, 1663, by his

nephews Thomas & John Erneley. [59
Juxon.] The wife of my cousin

Thomas Ernle, of
Dilton Marsh [Wilts]. John Erneley, son of my

brother Michael
Erneley. Children of my nephew Peter Erneley.

Thomas, son of my
brother Thomas Erneley. My niece Jane, wife of my

cousin Thomas
Erneley, of Bradon, £5. To my niece Mrs. Catherine

Baber, £20, &
to her daughter Elisabeth Baber & her son William

Baber, the house
which I lately dwelt in, now in possession of my

cousin Thomas
Erneley, called Stone, in Bideford. My nephew Richard,

son of my brother
Richard Erneley. My cousin Cath. Trelawney..”; m.

Philippa, youngest daughter of Edmund TREMAYNE, by his wife

Elizabeth
daughter of Sir John ST LEGER, of Annery, Monkleigh,

Devon,
Kt, and had issue:

8a. Mary ERNLE, bt.16 September 1624,
Bideford, Devon.

8b. William ERNLE, bt. 2 November 1625,
Bideford, Devon.

It is possible, then, that Laurence BRINLEY's "daughter in law Elizabeth EARNLY, widow", was wife, say, of William ERNLE's son William (as he seems about the right age), though I have no later trace of this younger William (though there were later ERNLEs in Truro, Cornwall: Jason, wife Sarah, and son, Vincent, at the end of the 17th century [and beginning of the 18th] whom I cannot place in the wider ERNLE pedigree) ,and he does not figure in his father's will (though that needn't necessarily mean he was dead or otherwise unprovided for, I know).

On the other hand, the ERNLE family was certainly associated with Sussex, and Laurence BRINLEY, whose first wife Mary was daughter of John MINIFIE, of Hunyton [i.e. Honiton in Otter], Devon, was apparently survived by a later wife (whose name is omitted from his will, though his wife's portion is mentioned as being something to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of his Irish and English lands following his death). She was apparently, Sarah NN, widow, of John BICKLEY, citizen and haberdasher, of St Mary Aldermary, London (will dated 12 Aug. 1636, pr. 26 Jan. 1636/7 see Lothrop Withington's "Virginia Gleanings in England", pp. 285-286).

Now, BICKLEY, though known best for its connexion to the line of BICKLEY Baronets of Attleborough (Attleburgh) in Norfolk, most certainly had a Sussex branch. Indeed, they, along with the ERNLE family had come under suspicion of popish recusancy in the opinion of the then Bishop of Chichester back in the 1570s. (and in 1538, there was Dorothy ERNELEY, one of the 11 ladies in the Warblington Castle (Sussex) not-so-crypto-Catholic household of Margaret POLE, Countess of Salisbury, whom the historian Hazel Pierce mentions as of unconfirmed origins in her 2003 book on the Plantagenet princess).

So I have good reason to seek the origins of Elizabeth EARNLY's late husband not only in London, but also in Devon and Sussex. I wonder, then, if anyone with knowledge of the wider family connexions of Laurence aka Lawrence BRINLEY, John BICKLEY, John MINIFIE, etc, might be able to assist me in figuring out who Elizabeth was?

One final note: the above Laurence BRINLEY gives a legacy to his beloved pastor "Master CALAMY", who is known to history as the Presbyterian minister, Edmund CALAMY. This raises the possibility of another kind of nonconformity arising in the case of this enquiry, just to complicate matters!

Many thanks, in advance, for any help, and warmest greetings to all listers for the seasons of Advent, Yule, and Christmastide!

Richard Carruthers, M.A. (Oxon.)
Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA

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